Russia seeking to destabilize Ukraine, return it to USSR - Poroshenko
Russia seeks to destabilize Ukraine and return it to the Soviet Union, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
"He [Russian President Vladimir Putin] wants to return the Soviet Union. Poroshenko answered in an interview to the question what is considered to be the biggest catastrophe of the 20th century – it is not World War II, not Hiroshima, not Chornobyl, but the collapse of the USSR. This is his way of thinking," Poroshenko said in an interview with CBS News, answering the question of what Putin is trying to achieve in Ukraine and whether he wants a weak country on the Russian border," the presidential press service said on Tuesday.
According to Poroshenko, the Russian president is trying to take Ukraine back: "Yes, to win back, and to return the USSR or the Russian Empire, as you prefer."
The head of state said that Ukraine has confirmed data about the presence of regular Russian troops in the occupied part of Donbas.
Answering the question about how many Russian soldiers there are now in the east of Ukraine, the president said: "We have confirmed figures that in different periods their number ranged from 10,000 to 2,500 of regular Russian troops in the occupied territory. In addition they have nearly 50,000 troops of the so-called "Russian volunteers," who were recruited through the Russian mobilization system and sent there. But they pretend that they are not soldiers of the regular army, but they are Russians, they are Russian by nature, they are Russian soldiers. They use Russian weapons and ammunition, and they are Russians."
The president also noted that according to the Ukrainian side, up to 50% of those who are at war in Donbas are citizens of Russia.
"Russia wants to destabilize Ukraine. They seek to discredit the achievements of the Revolution of Dignity for the last four years," Poroshenko said answering the question of why Russia is playing this game.
He added that it sounds like a "new cold war." However, according to the president, Ukraine is now "the front line of the Cold War." "We have a hot war now," the president stressed.
